Does the U.S. criminal justice system do more harm than good?

[dead0man]

would we be better off without it?  No, of course not and only a complete and total moron, blinded by some amazingly stupid biases could possibly think we wouldn't be.  Seriously, think about it for 2 funking seconds.


of course "yes" is winning, you people are idiots.

[dead0man]

would we be better off without it?  No, of course not and only a complete and total moron, blinded by some amazingly stupid biases could possibly think we wouldn't be.  Seriously, think about it for 2 funking seconds.


of course "yes" is winning, you people are idiots.

This is a very poor argument.  We clearly need SOME type of criminal justice system.  All countries have one.  That's not the question.  The question is whether the one we have does more harm than good.  And the answer to that isn't nearly as clear as your post acts like it is. 

if we didn't have it, society would be worse.  Thus it doesn't do more harm than good.

[dead0man]

would we be better off without it?  No, of course not and only a complete and total moron, blinded by some amazingly stupid biases could possibly think we wouldn't be.  Seriously, think about it for 2 funking seconds.


of course "yes" is winning, you people are idiots.

This is a very poor argument.  We clearly need SOME type of criminal justice system.  All countries have one.  That's not the question.  The question is whether the one we have does more harm than good.  And the answer to that isn't nearly as clear as your post acts like it is. 

if we didn't have it, society would be worse.  Thus it doesn't do more harm than good.

How would society clearly be worse? 

you just said we need SOME kind of criminal justice.  If we didn't have it, life would be worse.  Thus it does more good than harm.  Doing more harm than good would mean it would be better to NOT have it.

I 100% agree that our criminal justice system isn't ideal and many of the outcomes are bad.  All systems could use a little reforming.  There are thousands of people who come into it as not very good humans and come out of it far far worse.  But there are thousands of not very good humans that turn out far far worse that never step foot in a prison.  It's not like US prisons are the only place that creates bad Americans.

If we didn't have the criminal justice system, America would be worse, thus it doesn't do more harm than good.

[dead0man]

would we be better off without it?  No, of course not and only a complete and total moron, blinded by some amazingly stupid biases could possibly think we wouldn't be.  Seriously, think about it for 2 funking seconds.


of course "yes" is winning, you people are idiots.

This is a very poor argument.  We clearly need SOME type of criminal justice system.  All countries have one.  That's not the question.  The question is whether the one we have does more harm than good.  And the answer to that isn't nearly as clear as your post acts like it is. 

if we didn't have it, society would be worse.  Thus it doesn't do more harm than good.

How would society clearly be worse? 

you just said we need SOME kind of criminal justice.  If we didn't have it, life would be worse.  Thus it does more good than harm. 

Saying that we need "SOME kind of criminal justice" doesn't necessarily mean that what we DO have does more good than harm.  In terms of harm it could be:

A different system > No system > What we have

but that's not what it is, it is more like:
all the better systems possible > what we have > a worse system > no system > the worst possible systems

But we can't get past this.  What are some ways our system could be better?  I'd suggest we stop putting people who do "crimes" with no victims in jail with violent thugs.

[dead0man]

would we be better off without it?  No, of course not and only a complete and total moron, blinded by some amazingly stupid biases could possibly think we wouldn't be.  Seriously, think about it for 2 funking seconds.


of course "yes" is winning, you people are idiots.

This is a very poor argument.  We clearly need SOME type of criminal justice system.  All countries have one.  That's not the question.  The question is whether the one we have does more harm than good.  And the answer to that isn't nearly as clear as your post acts like it is. 

if we didn't have it, society would be worse.  Thus it doesn't do more harm than good.

That's a very simplistic way of looking at it. I don't know why you're assuming that you have to compare the current system to no system at all.

it's what the phrase "do more harm than good" means....what else could it mean?  We're adding up the "harms" and the "goods", seeing which pile is bigger.

[dead0man]

it's what the phrase "do more harm than good" means....what else could it mean? 

No it's not? You're not comparing it to a specific alternative, you're looking at it in a vacuum. "Does the good things that the criminal justice system do outweigh the bad it does".

The question was not "compare the pros and cons of keeping vs abolishing the US justice system and replacing it with nothing".

every definition online suggests it means "makes the situation worse, not better" or "To exacerbate the problem, rather than making it better, often in the process of trying".  There is never a third option that you seem to think exists.

We're adding up the "harms" and the "goods", seeing which pile is bigger.

Yes, exactly! That doesn't require you to compare it to an imagined alternative, or a not replacing it at all.

when you add up the harms and the goods, the goods clearly outweigh the harms.